Man's Vehicle Gets Stolen From a Car Wash With His Late Wife's Ashes Still In It

On Thursday, Melvin Hayes, an 80-year-old Elk Grove, Calif. resident, was on the way to get his wife's ashes blessed when he stopped off at a car wash to have his 2011 Ford Fusion cleaned. It turned out to be a huge mistake.

While Hayes was waiting for the car to be washed, he struck up a conversation with a woman who was also waiting inside of the car wash. That woman disappeared a few minutes later and went outside to retrieve her car. At least, that's what Hayes thought she did. But in actuality, she went outside and got inside of Hayes' car and took off. And a car wash attendant let her do it, because he assumed that she was with Hayes after seeing the two talking together.

Hayes doesn't care about his car at this point, though. But he does care about his wife's ashes, which were still in the backseat when his car was stolen. As you can see in the video above, he's heartbroken over the situation and wants to make sure that the ashes are returned to him safely so that he can move on with his life.

"Someone could dump my wife's ashes in the Sacramento River or dumpster or down the sewer," he said shortly after the car theft. "I don't want that to happen to my wife's ashes."

After hearing his story, we certainly don't want that, either. So we hope that Hayes is reunited with his car—and, more importantly, his wife's ashes—sooner than later. If the thief has a heart, she'll return the car immediately.